New England Condominium November 2020

Cleaning Through COVID Maintaining Sanitation—and Sanity—in Multifamily Housing BY DARCEY GERSTEIN November 2020 NEWENGLANDCONDO.COM to even locate a bona fide product with the CDC-recommended percentage of alcohol content (the CDC recommends that a hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol be used in situations when soap and water are not available), you would be faced with unimagi- nable markups and strict quantity limits. Even bottles of pure iso- propyl alcohol and glycerin gel became scarce as citizens resorted 205 Lexington Avenue, NY, NY 10016 • CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED continued on page 6 THE CONDO, HOA & CO-OP RESOURCE CONDOMINIUM NEW ENGLAND In Part 1 of “Multifamily Energy Savings Solutions,” we introduced some relatively simple products and processes that indi- vidual owners or shareholders can adopt to reduce energy consumption and emissions and to save on their energy costs. Part 2 addresses the bigger picture: re- placement of entire systems; working with advocates, government, and utilities to move toward greener energy; and, just as with the solutions mentioned in Part 1, achieving community buy-in and widespread imple- mentation. Coupling with a Co-op Jay Egg knows a lot about educating con- sumers and developers on the path toward energy efficiency. A former nuclear power engineer for the U.S. Navy, he became a lead- ing expert on ground coupling—the tech- nology that allows for a non-fossil-burning alternative for heating and cooling build- ings—and now has a “practically evangelical zeal for sharing this technology,” he tells New England Condominium . Today he makes a living consulting and speaking on the subject with his business, Egg Geo, and was happy to talk to us about how geothermal technology is being implemented in multifamily build- ings and communities. Even though he lives in Florida, where the weather inspired him to pursue innova- tion in the heating, ventilation, and air con- ditioning (HVAC) sector, about 30% of Egg’s work is in New York State—mostly because of the state’s progressive climate agenda and strong heating and cooling program with the New York State Energy Research and De- velopment Authority (NYSERDA), he says. He is currently working with the Amalgam- ated Housing Cooperative in the Bronx in an owner’s representative role as the 1,500- unit campus undertakes a conversion from a steam-absorption chiller to a geothermal Even though the world has been contending with COVID-19 and its consequences for nine months and counting, the routines and practices we’ve adopted to prevent its spread and minimize personal risk of infection are still evolving. With new data come new rec- ommendations, inventions, and adaptations. If nothing else, this pandemic keeps us on our toes. Vigilance and flexibility, which might seem like oxymorons, have equal impor- tance in the global effort to restore some form of normalcy in our lives. So it is with cleaning, especially in multifamily buildings and communities where comings and goings—however limited to reduce social proximity and interpersonal con- tact—necessitate passage through and interaction with common areas. According to the website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “Communal spaces, community activities, and close living quarters in multifamily housing increase the risk of getting and spreading the \[corona\]virus”—making the cleaning and sanitation procedures in these settings all the more important for the health and safety of the approximately 74 million Americans who live in such homes, according to the Community Associa- tions Institute (CAI), as well as the staff who service them. Those responsible for keeping these areas clean and free of hazards—including viral pathogens—have to contend with the ever-changing protocols, products, and processes in place to protect the public—and themselves—from the spread of COVID-19. But is there a point where cleaning and disinfection can go overboard? Sanitizer Insanity In the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, hand sanitizer became such a hot commodity that the federal government took to usurping shipments headed for hospitals and hard-hit areas because supplies were so limited and demand was so high. If you were lucky enough The annual meeting of owners or shareholders in multifamily housing as- sociations and cooperatives is a legally mandated opportunity for a community to convene, learn, share, and exercise their essential duty—to vote. The lead- up to the election of trustees and other matters before the owners or sharehold- ers can amount to an entire election sea- son—spring or early summer for many multifamily communities—that includes mingling events, campaigning, and infor- mational meetings. This year, boards, managers, and their legal counsel faced an unprecedented challenge of conducting these processes safely in the midst of a pandemic while complying with governing documents and the law. For some, it meant adjourn- ing the meeting to some time in the future when the world might resume some form of normalcy … which has yet to happen. For others, it meant acquiring and adjust- ing to new systems of gathering that can be done virtually—the online meeting platforms of Zoom, Google Meets, Mi- crosoft Teams, and the like with which we have now all become intimately familiar. Holding the Remote In many states and localities, the leg- islature offered some solutions. Scott Smiler, attorney with the New York firm Gallet Dreyer Berkey, tells New England Condominium that Business Corporation Law (BCL), which governs cooperatives as corporations, was amended “specifical- ly \[to provide\] that meetings can be held solely by means of electronic communica- tion, and that the platform or service will be deemed the place of the meeting….So whether your bylaws provide it or not, we can now look at that specific BCL section to give us the authority.” Smiler mentions that this provision applies only to co-ops, not condos or HOAs which are governed by Real Property Law, but that courts would likely apply a similar thought pro- cess to condominiums and HOAs as well if challenged on the matter. An additional caveat is that the order expires on De- Multifamily Energy Savings Solutions Part 2: The Bigger Picture BY DARCEY GERSTEIN Remote Building Governance How Housing Associations Hold Meetings Distantly BY DARCEY GERSTEIN continued on page 8 continued on page 6